To run a script, we have to point the Python interpreter at our Python code…but how do we do that? There are a few different ways, and there are some differences between how Windows and Linux/Mac operating systems do things. Run a script using the Python interpreter It’s important to always know which Python version is compatible with your Python code. Sometimes they’re dramatically different. The major Python version you’ll likely see is Python 2 or Python 3, but there are sub-versions (i.e. It’s critical to point out that there are different versions of the Python interpreter. Different Versions of the Python Interpreter So to run Python code, all you have to do is point the interpreter at your code. Since it’s an interpreted programming language, each line of human-readable code is passed to an interpreter that converts it to machine code at run time. Traditional programming languages like C/C++ are compiled, meaning that before it can be run, the human-readable code is passed into a compiler (special program) to generate machine code – a series of bytes providing specific instructions to specific types of processors. Python is an interpreted programming language, meaning Python code must be run using the Python interpreter.

As a blooming Python developer who has just written some Python code, you’re immediately faced with the important question, “how do I run it?” Before answering that question, let’s back up a little to cover one of the fundamental elements of Python.

How to launch python on mac